The Minefield
by Alien-Ariel
Summary: A journey through my own mind. Contains 53 fandoms and several IRL people. Check my profile for full list of fandoms present. Happens in a series of disjointed adventures. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS!
1. This Is All True

**This is going to be a weird story, just to give you a heads up.**

**I don't expect any of you to get what I'm trying to explain in this first chapter, so feel free to ask me questions. I'm here to help. But really, my Mind makes very little sense anyway. Just go with it, I guess. Haha.**

**Also, I need a little help filing this correctly. I'm not just sure where to put it to get the most views, so if you have any ideas, PLEASE let me know.**

**Also, check my profile for the FULL list of all fandoms present in this story. ALSO, PICTURES OF ALL IRL PEOPLE ARE ON MY PROFILE. Including me (not the best representation though). Most names have been changed to protect identities and such.**

**Anyway, please tell me what you think! I'm dying to know.**

**Enjoy!**

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I remember when all this madness started being real very specifically. The exact moment when my thoughts stopping living only behind the gates of my mind, I mean. Because it wasn't gradual a slow meshing of worlds; it was immediate. This moment was once I went through the little door.

It was my first day back to college after winter break. I had the mini-fridge pulled out to reveal the only way to access the space under my bed. I had just plugged in all the cords that had been left to hang freely over break and my mini-fridge whirled into life. The sound startled me and my head bumped against the underside of my bed. Blowing my orange bangs out of my face and cursing colorfully, I started to back out of the narrow space. I leaned back on my heels and rubbed my hands together to free them of whatever carpet-crud was stuck to them. Just as I was pushing the mini-fridge back into place, the sound of peeling tape met my ears.

"Don't fall behind the bed." I told my Coraline poster as it threatened to part from the wall. But it didn't listen, disappearing into the blackness I'd just closed off.

"You gotta be shitting me." I grumbled as I once again moved my mini-fridge aside, "Where did you go, you son of a bitch?"

I finally found the poster in the farthest corner of the underbed space. How did it get all the way over there? I had never been this far back before, and it was then that I saw a square little door sitting along the wall, hiding in a shadow. Immediately intrigued, I reached for the knob, intending to open it. Until I remembered the poster in my hand. Looking down at the image of Coraline and the Cat staring into the eerie glow from the door to the Other World made me rethink myself.

"Best to let it be." I decided, once again crawling out into the light, poster in hand, "It probably just leads to Parker and Charlie's room anyway."

But that poster had other ideas. That same night, despite being reinforced with the maximum amount of tape I would allow, the same poster once more fell behind my bed and, disregarding physics yet again, trapped itself halfway in and halfway out of the crack between the little door and the floor.

"You little bastard, what do you want from me?" I said as I looked at it. Pulling it free from the door, my mind turned, "You're trying to tell me something, aren't you?" But was this a message or a trap? Only one way to find out. Gripping the knob, I pulled the door towards me. Semi-darkness greeted me from the other side.

I didn't hear any voices, so I crawled through the door, taking care to shut it quietly behind me. I didn't want my roommate Katie finding it open and me missing. I emerged into an apparently unused and empty dorm room. This couldn't be Parker and Charlie's room then. But it also didn't look any different or in any means improved from normal dorms in any way; so I don't think I was in the infamous Other World either.

"I am confused." I said to myself, but decided to explore anyway. I screamed as I opened the door to the hallway; two teenage boys were standing opposite the door, as if expecting me. One was tall and brown-haired, with this ridiculously big army coat hanging damn near his knees. The other was shorter, his blond hair hitting around his shoulders; he tripped over the loose shoelaces of his Chuck Taylors when I yelled.

"Oh, sorry." I said, covering my heart, "You scared me. Excuse me." I said politely as the taller one pushed his glasses farther up his nose with the palm of his hand. I didn't give much thought to them as I continued out of Stratford House 7 and into a strange sight.

There was no snow on the ground, and the sun was sitting in a clear blue sky. Had I gone ahead in time to the summer by going through the little door? I guess that would explain why my neighbors' room looked deserted, and why no one else from the other thirteen Stratford Houses was outside enjoying the nice weather. I only noticed that the two boys had followed me when I had finished climbing the hill which the main University of Cincinnati campus sat on.

"Um, can I help you?" I asked them, trying to remain polite. Oh God, what do I do to get them to go away? I really didn't want to get mugged and/or raped. The tall one tried to push his glasses up again, but since they wouldn't go any higher it just sort of looked like he smacked his forehead. Then something stirred in my thoughts, a crazy idea.

"Do I- _know _you two?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest, "What are your names?"

"Tom Henderson." Replied the tall one quietly.

"Sam Hellerman." Said the other with this devilish little smirk that made me slightly uncomfortable.

"You're kidding." I said, the names solidifying my absurd suspicion, "_The _Tom Henderson and Sam Hellerman? As in, the two main characters from King Dork, aka my favorite book of all time?" Maybe I expected them to laugh it off and admit the prank, or even for them to give me looks of complete misunderstanding. I certainly didn't expect them to nod.

"We're her _favorite_." Sam said cheerfully, elbowing Tom in the ribs, "Wait til the Hogwarts kids hear that!" What did he just say? No way.

"Bullshit." I said, turning around quickly and nearly running into another person.

"Whoa, watch it." A familiar voice said to me as I stumbled back a few steps. However, the face didn't match the voice. I was looking at some dirty hobo in a huge, goofy, blue top hat with a bright white beard quite in opposition to the thick black hair on his head.

"Who are you?" I asked, getting freaked out and more severely confused by the minute.

"I am your Wizard Mentor!" The hobo said, throwing out his arms in a grand gesture, "I am here to help you on your journey through your own Mind."

"My _what_?" I demanded, clutching my head, "I really have gone crazy, haven't I?" Just then the ground immediately in front of me split apart and what looked like a flat screen television rose up to my eye level from the blackness below.

"Accept gradualreport advice on the topic of 'crazy'?" A cool voice asked me. I just stared at it, lost for words.

"Uh." I uttered, "Sure." This caused the monitor to click into life and play a YouTube video from the gradualreport's channel called "I'll show you CRAZY".

"What is this?" I asked myself.

"So glad you asked!" My... Wizard Mentor said cheerfully as he came to stand beside me, "Anytime you're feeling confused, you can call for a terminal and play one of these videos. You're familiar with them right?"

"Uh, yeah." I said hesitantly, "But I've never used them as real advice. They don't usually apply to me."

"Oh, well everything and _anything_ can apply here. You control this place." My Wizard Mentor told me.

"So... this place," I started, looking at him critically, "Is my _own Mind_?" He nodded.

"Everything you think about exists here in its own little world. It just happens to look like your college campus." He explained.

"Why?"

"The hell if I know. It's _your _Mind." He said, shrugging. I smiled a little.

"Who _are _you?" I asked, intrigued.

"Cuz, I'm hurt!" He said, pulling off the fake beard.

"Quade!" I exclaimed, finally recognizing my older cousin, "Why are you dressed like a homeless Uncle Sam though?"

"It was the best I could do!" He said defensively, reattaching the fake beard, "And I do not look homeless." I just shrugged in return, smiling at my cousin.

"So," I continued, wondering something, "Are you the only in-real-life person here, this place being only full of fandoms?" I asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of Tom and Sam.

"It's whatever you want." He replied simply. I put a hand over my mouth and the other on my hip, thinking.

"What if I say my cell phone-" I pulled it out of my jeans pocket, "Acts as a line between my Mind and the real world? And calling someone takes them here!" I ended excitedly, not waiting for an answer before dialing my best friend Ashley Vaughan's number. And sure enough, on the first ring, she popped into existence.

"It's whatever you want." Quade repeated as I laughed disbelievingly and ran to hug my bemused friend.

"But of course there will be the ones simply on my thoughts walking around. Anything I think happens here, comes into existence." I continued quickly, growing excited. It was then that I noticed Parker Graph and Charlie Gray walking across the McMicken lawn, "Those are my neighbors. I was thinking about them before I went through the door." I explained to everyone present.

"We know." Said Quade, Tom, and Sam.

"We live in your Mind." Sam cut in, "We know everything about your life."

"Uh-"

"Not everything." Tom interrupted quietly, "Just what you think about."

"Which _is _everything." I said, suddenly horrified and faintly embarrassed. He just shrugged. No way can they know everything I know. That means… My eyes widened as I remembered my ridiculous attractions to fictional characters. Sam just winked suggestively at me and Tom blushed madly. Oh fuck. But nothing more was said on the subject, apparently for my sake.

"Ariel Leather Red." A voice finally interrupted my silent thoughts (which appear in the sky above me in the form of little paper airplanes, I believe). It was Ashley. I gave her a look to ask what was wrong, "Where am I?"

"Do the people I bring in manually not get filled in on any of this?" I asked incredulously of Quade, who just held up his hands.

"I don't make the rules here!" He said defensively before vanishing in a cloud a blue smoke.

"Coward!" I yelled.

"You could just imagine everyone you bring here yourself being told about it." I heard Tom suggest, "Anything's possible. It doesn't have to make sense."

"My Mind doesn't usually." I said nonchalantly, observing my paper airplane thoughts as I imagined exactly what Tom suggested. And before I knew it, Ashley's glare had changed into a clear look and a huge smile.

"Yayo!" She screamed, running to hug me.

"I missed you too, Ash." I said softly.

This could be the best thing to ever happen to me. This could be exactly what I need: a world I can control and make into what I want. I can make the rules, and make things fair for everyone. I could exist without fear and pain and heartbreak and everything else that drives me crazy. Everything that drove me here in the first place, I guess. I could be free from all that. And I would be.


	2. Conceding Insanity

**Wooo, chapter 2! Not much new to say.**

**Thanks to mistofan for the review! Glad you like it so far.**

**Anyway, CHECK MY PROFILE FOR NEW PICTURES OF MORE NONS, A MAP OF THE UC CAMPUD, AND FOR AN UPDATED LIST OF THE FANDOMS PRESENT. As you may have noticed, the number went up by, like, 10 at least. Haha.**

**ALSO! You should add me on facebook so you can see the pictures of my dorm hall and UC's campus. It'll help you visualize everything, because UC is too weird for words. My name's Ariel Reid, and you can filter the search by searching "University of Cincinnati" under education. I have a red monster hat on in my profile picture. The UC pictures are in the "My Insane Dorm and Campus" album.**

**Tell me what you think, and enjoy!**

"I literally can't read any more of this." I said to myself quietly enough so my roommate Katie wouldn't hear me over her music. I hit the X on the tab containing my required reading for my European Civilizations class; I couldn't get myself to care about it, even though I was only five pages into the fourteen I'd need for class in two hours. Don't ask me why a Biology and Secondary Education double-major needs history. Damn liberal arts degree.

I couldn't stop thinking about my first trip into my Mind. It had been several weeks, almost a month actually, since I'd gone through the little door under my bed. I just couldn't believe what I'd started to think of as proof of my growing instability. I couldn't get myself to get part the craziness of it all. The absolute insanity of the world of my Mind.

But today it was _really_ on my thoughts. I had to go back. Today. Right now.

And, as if preordained to do so, my roommate got up to go to the bathroom. I already knew from my last trip that time didn't work in my Mind; I would be back in front of my laptop before Katie even noticed I was gone.

Immediately jumping out of my desk chair, I went to pull out my mini fridge and turn the knob of the little door. I shut it behind me, and crawled out into the same room as before. It still looked unused and vacant, and the lack of snow on the adjacent dorm house's roof meant I had successfully entered my Mind. Tom and Sam sitting on the other bed, waiting for me again, only confirmed this still further.

"There you are." Sam said before sliding off the bed, "We thought you were never coming back." Tom helped me stand up. His palms were sweating.

"I didn't want to come back. At least not at first." I said, trying to decide how to explain my absence, "This place scares me." I confessed after a silent moment.

"_Scares_ you? But there's nothing here yet. I could understand how _some_ of the things here might scare you, cause believe me, your Mind is a little messed up. But this room is totally normal right now." Sam rambled on, with a look around the empty dorm room.

"I mean, the _idea_ of this place scares me." I corrected myself while rolling my eyes, "But whatever. I'm here."

"You're here." Sam repeated, just because he lacked the ability to be quiet.

"Why is this place vacant?" I asked, leaning against the bedframe, "This is my building, but this doesn't look like Parker and Charlie's room. It's clean." Sam started to open his mouth again, "Not you. You be quiet."

"This is your room." Tom answered me in the same soft tone he used whenever he actually spoke. Sam gave me a nasty look at being silenced.

"This looks nothing like my room." I laughed, thinking of all the posters, pictures, and newspaper clippings that clutter my walls in real life.

"You haven't decided how to decorate it yet." Tom said to explain. I raised an eyebrow at him and turned to look at the blank walls behind me on what would be my side of the room.

"So I just have to think about it, right? Picture it in my thoughts?" I asked, but already thinking of my room in real life. Paper airplanes started to materialize above my head the more I thought.

"That's right." Tom said. At that moment, my paper airplane thoughts started to dive-bomb the walls. Posters and pictures and all my belongings sprang from the airplanes and settled just as they should in the real world version of my room.

However, they didn't just attack my side of the room. Others flew to Katie's supposed side to fill in her shelf and desk area, while still more passed through the door and into the hallway.

I turned around to see more than just Tom and Sam in the room now. A very large airplane was unfolding itself to make a perfect replica of my roommate Katie Corso.

"Oh shit." I groaned, realizing where the other airplanes must have gone. Walking into the hallway, I saw the other doors open to reveal my neighbors and their rooms, all set up exactly as they are in real life, or as exact as I remember them being.

"Well I didn't mean for all _that _to happen." I complained as everyone continued on as they usually would.

"You'll learn to control your thoughts eventually." Sam said, apparently not able to keep quiet a moment longer, "Or not. That was a serious display of not having _any_ control."

"What do you know?" I yelled, getting irritated with him. Suddenly, a rolling, black storm cloud popped into existence over his head and started to rain over him.

"Oh darn." He said, trying to step out from its path, only for it to follow him.

"That's right, you don't swear." I said to myself, looking on with amusement.

"Aw c'mon, get it to stop." Sam whined as Tom and I watched him.

"What, _I _did that?" I asked, "Oh yeah, because you made me angry. That makes sense, I guess."

"It makes no sense at all!" Sam argued, sounding as frustrated as he looked disgruntled, "Nothing here makes sense."

"Shut up!" I yelled back, causing thunder to rumble from Sam's personal storm cloud. I think I heard Tom laugh.

"Why are you guys always here waiting for me?" I asked him, so as to better ignore a complaining Sam.

"We live here." Tom said, "Forlocks thought it would be good for you to have some normal people close by to greet you when you came through the door."

"Forlocks?" I gave him a weird look, "Oh wait, my cousin."

"Your Wizard Mentor." Sam corrected me loudly.

"Did I ask you?" I glared at him briefly and was satisfied by a jolt of static making his hair stand up.

"Same difference." I said to Tom, shrugging.

"Those are our rooms." Tom continued, pointing to two bright orange doors at the end of the hall that aren't there in real life.

"Why are the doors orange?" I asked, walking over to one.

"The color orange-"

"Hold on, I can't hear you." I interrupted him, "Sam! If I get rid of the storm cloud, will you behave yourself and close your mouth?"

"Sure. Anything." He agreed hastily, side-stepping a bolt of lightning. And then it was gone.

"Ok, what about the color orange?" I asked again.

"It denotes the presence of Fics and their realms." Tom said, and then added, "Sam and I, and the rest of your fandoms are Fics; people you know in real life are called Nons."

"Ok, that makes sense. To me." I added, with another glare at Sam, "Why orange?" I asked as an afterthought. Tom shrugged.

"Orange is your favorite color." He said simply.

"That it is." I agreed, reaching for the handle on the door closest to my room, "So do you two have your own rooms? That hardly seems fair if I still have to share-"

But there were other people in the room when I opened the door. One was lanky, with longer-than-normal arms and a very prominent nose; his dull red hair looked a little greasy. The other was skinny and had pale, freckled skin. And his dark brown eyes were watching me from behind his wire-rimmed glasses with this intense stare.

"Oh hello." I said cheerfully, "John and Billy from _You Don't Know Me_, right?" They just nodded.

"Ok. Excuse me." I said, shutting their door again. Turning to look at Tom and Sam, I crossed my arms.

"That's our room." Tom said, pointing to the other orange door, "Sam and I share it."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised," I mused, "I read your book and their book around the same time; not to mention you and John are reminiscent of each other. I always group them together in my thoughts. Like Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace; I listened to them a lot together. You know what I mean?" They were silent, "Whatever. They're from one of my favorite books too, is all your need to know."

"But we're your absolute favorite." Sam said with pride.

"You're my favorites." I admitted. Everything was quiet.

"How many Fics live in my Mind?" I asked them. They just shrugged again.

"You add more every day. It's impossible to count." Tom said.

"Some only last a day, others never leave." Sam added, not liking Tom talking more than him. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well I guess I should start meeting them all then. Shouldn't I?"


End file.
